CHENNAI: Even a month ago, Lakshya Sen’s place at the Olympics appeared to be in jeopardy. He hadn’t made a good start to the season and was running out of tournaments to garner crucial Olympic qualifying points. Never mind because he has turned it around over the course of the last few weeks.
He reached the semifinals at the French Open. He has now emulated that with another run to the last four at the ongoing All England Championships. What will please the 22-year-old is the way he fought back against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia. Jia, the 2021 winner, had won the first game but the Indian fought back to win the tie 20-22, 21-16, 21-19. With U Vimal Kumar and Prakash Padukone sitting in his corner, Sen, defended admirably apart from finding winners thanks to some jump smashes,
The Indian, seeking to become the first from the country to win this event since P Gopichand triumphed in 2001, went into overdrive in the third game. He opened up a huge lead and never relinquished control. Dane Victor Axelsen, the current World No. 1, went down in three games. The reigning Olympic champion won the first game but an inspired Anthony Ginting fought back to win 8-21, 21-18, 21-19.
An Se-young cruises
An Se-young has been cut above the rest in recent times and the South Korean shuttler, ranked World No 1, is touted to be a contender for gold medal in the Paris Olympics. Having made a habit of grabbing titles over the last one year or so, she deservedly captured the BWF Female Player of the Year at the end of 2023 season. That relentless hunger was evident at the season opener in Malaysia Open, where she defeated former World No 1 Tai Tzu-ying for the top prize.
Now, she’s on another bull run; three wins (one of her casualties was India’s PV Sindhu) in the ongoing meet in Birmingham. Her latest casualty was Han Yue of China (21-16, 21-19) in the quarterfinals.